Hi, I'm trying to build a very small outdoor misting system for propagating plant cuttings, and want to power it by a solar panel with a back-up battery (deep-cycle). The design of the system is to have a solar operated water pump with enough PSI to push the 6 mist-heads that will be used. The water source will be a container (roughly 10 gal). And the water will be reused by dropping back to the container through soil seepage and through redirecting of any excess water flow (using PVC pipes). Of course a filtering system will be in place to remove most of the debris from the reused water. When enough evaporation eventually occurs, I will need to refill the container with more water. I found that some of the mist-heads used for hydroponic growing only require about 15-20 PSI which is perfect. But my biggest problem is deciding on the pump type. I've read up about many different pump types used in the industry, but they have so many pros and cons and are expensive. Ideally, I would like to use one of those cheap submersible fountain pumps that are based on GPH, not PSI, and try to see how I could boost the pressure by some second device, like a booster pump, or a pressure tank. Since a pressure tank would probably cost less than a booster pump, I would like to do the following: Use the solar submersible fountain pump, triggered by a pressure switch, to pump water directly into the pressure tank. Then use the pressure tank to send water at 15-20 psi to the mist-heads via an automated water cutoff. Whenever the pressure tank runs low again, the pressure switch would trigger the pump to fill the tank again to refresh my pressurized water supply. The automated water cutoff would be operated by a digital intermittent timer governing the times of water flow to the misters, independent of the pump/pressure-tank activity. The submersible pump would be guarded from running dry by using float switches to turn it off at low water level. I can already think of some pros and cons about this design, but wanted to get your thoughts first. Thank you for your ideas. Vince Deegan

Fountain pumps typically only produce a few psi and misters work better at higher pressures. So I'd use a Shurflo 12v pump with a built-in automatic pressure switch.

"Fountain pumps typically only produce a few psi and misters work better at higher pressures. So I'd use a Shurflo 12v pump with a built-in automatic pressure switch. "

Thank you Jonr,
I was wondering. Since most of the Shurlflos aren't submersible and don't like much moisture around them, do you know what kind of materials I would need to use when building an enclosure to protect the Shurflo from the high moisture of a misting system?

Thanks.
Vince

I would locate the pump outside of the high humidity area.